"The Hate U Give" - Code Switching - Kai

I came across “The Hate U Give” as I was looking for something to read I have not been able to put it down for long. “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas demonstrates the institutionalized racism, police brutality, and racism that is so ingrained in America. It is told from the point of view of Starr, a high school girl of color, as she sees her best friend killed by a police officer for no reason other than that he was black. The story follows the struggles Starr goes through while attempting to speak out for Khalil’s murder. But what stands out in “The Hate U Give” is the code switching Starr and the colored community demonstrate depending on where they are. The code switching emphasizes the drastic differences in how people of color use around others in order to fit and stay safe.

 

“The Hate U Give” shows how differently people of color act around the police just to stay safe. As Starr and her brother Seven are driving, “Seven freezes. He turns Chris’s music mix off and slows down… ‘Shut up,’ Seven hisses. We stop at a red light. A Riverton Hills patrol car pulls up beside us. Seven straightens and stares ahead, barely blinking and gripping the steering wheel.” (Thomas 87). In this quote, police approach the Starr and her family and their manner changes immediately. They stop listening to music, they slow down, and they look straight ahead to give the police no reason to pull them over. Starr explains she and her siblings are taught by 12, if not earlier, how to act around police. Starr’s father tells her “you do whatever they tell you to do, … Keep your hands visible. Don’t make any sudden moves. Only speak when they speak to you” (Thomas 20). The instructions Starr’s father gives are not only to keep Starr safe, but to save her life. The police suspect black people to do something bad and be dangerous, simply because they are black. They killed Khalil because they had the power to, they feared no repercussions, and because he was black.

 

In addition to code switching around police officers Starr changes how she talks based on who she is around. After Khalil was murdered by the police, Starr is interviewed during the investigation. “’Hello.’ My voice is changing already. It always happens around ‘other’ people…I don’t talk like me or sound like me. I choose every word carefully and make sure I pronounce them well. I can never, ever let anyone think I’m ghetto” (Thomas 95). Here, Starr is changing her speech so that people don’t think less or are afraid of her. But she code switches because she is black. People assume if she uses slang then she is ‘uneducated’ or ‘ghetto’, because she is black, not for any reason that has to do with Starr herself.

 

 

But Starr is certainly not the only one who code switches throughout “The Hate U Give”. Her parents do the same thing. When Starr’s mother gets a phone call, she “speaks in her ‘other voice’ on the phone. ‘Yes ma’am.” (Thomas 209). This quote illustrates the code switching that Starr’s family does depending on who they are talking to. When they are at home they talk one way, when they are with close friends they talk a similar way, when they are at school they talk a different way, and when they are around the police they talk a different way. But the main reason why Starr and her family code switch is because they don’t want to be discriminated against because of their race any more than they already are.

 

The code switching Thomas illustrates in “The Hate U Give” gives the reader a better understanding of the struggles of minorities, African-Americans in particular, go through on a daily basis in order to fit in. But more than to fit in, “The Hate U Give” shows the changes in actions people of color do to protect themselves against the police. One last thing I want to say is “The Hate U Give” is not a book one has to push themselves to finish due to its heavy topics. It is a page turner, but it has crucial messages. “The Hate U Give” is an amazing and eye opening book that I recommend to everyone.

-Kai